My Latest ...

[mcdermd]

Grabbed a Quadra 610 from the dumpster. The cover has broken tabs on the back but in decent shape other than that. 25MHz 68040, 32MB RAM, 1GB SCSI hard drive. No cards, no CD. Boots from the internal drive into 7.1.

[TheIanMan85]

...And the sweet scores keep rolling in. Given the fact that it got tossed into a dumpster I'd say you're lucky all that's broken are the tabs.

I opened a WGS 6150 and Performa 6116CD both with tabs still on them and managed to get them open and shut without breaking anything. (Well, anything else...I broke the bezel on the 6150's CD-ROM in the first place prompting the need to open both...)

A Quadra 610 was the first file server I used at home. Complete with PhoneNet to a IIcx, my Power Mac 5300/100 and PB 5300cs. Awww yeeeaaahhh... It was later replaced with a 950 from eBay. Actually I think they were both from eBay...back in the late 90s when they could be had for shipping plus a few bucks.

[Unknown_K]

Shipping was also much cheaper in the late 1990's. Actually from what I recall 68K macs were not that cheap until 2000+, there was a massive amount of dumping in 2000-2004 on ebay.

[TheIanMan85]

True on both, actually. Now that I think of it in the late 1990s they were cheap but usually not less than the shipping cost. (Sometimes they were...depended on the model and the deal you found.) It was the early 2000s when I started taking in a lot of 68k and early PPCs for next to nothing.

A good time to play with all things retro Mac. Much harder to get such a variety of 68k Macs on the cheap these days. Then again, it's all in finding the right deal. The proof is in this thread...like the aforementioned Dumpster Quadra!

[Unknown_K]

You can still find a specific machine cheap enough to collect, you just won't find tons of vintage well kept machines for next to nothing in one large lot anymore (unless somebody local kicks the bucket and their reletives don't have time to look the stuff over).

If I just started collecting today then finding a SE/30, IIfx, 840AV, and 950 would just be a matter of coming up with $100 - 200 a pop for each one. Plus a few hundred more for misc stuff like software and add-ons. A super hoarding collection is just not economic to do anymore, and you are probably better off as a collector not doing that anyway.

[TheIanMan85]

Agreed on being better off with a collection of a few you can maintain, use and cherish versus a super hoard. I've got too many left over from the days of getting tons at once for pocket change. Now I hardly know where to start when it comes to playing with them again.

Unless you have a huge climate controlled space where you live and lots of time. Then I say hoard away! After all, collecting old Macs is an addiction. Like any good addiction it should be pushed to the absolute max. Wait...that's why I needed to rent a U-Haul to move my Macs into storage. Even if you have he space to have them all at home today, you may not tomorrow.

[mcdermd]

I grabbed another Indigo iBook today for $15. The bummer is that it's missing the CD bezel just like my other one

[Cosmo]

That's a good price there! Otherwise in good condition i assume. The cd-bezel seems to be one part to easily break/get loose, bummer.

I saw also one auction for lime iBook G3 with Airport and original package, but bidding goes at 55€ right now wich i think is bit too much. Would be nice addition/replacement of my previous one. But that comes to another topic of reducing collection to level of handing them all. I am thinking of putting Plus and 512k in storage and keep only Classic on desk for classic form machines, best of each type.

[mcdermd]

Yes, in my office space, I keep a SE/30, Color Classic Mystic, Apple ///, Macintosh 128k and Macintosh Plus Platinum setup. The rest get shuffled in and out of storage.

[mcdermd]

Bought two B&W G3 PowerMacs (no RAM, Video Cards or Hard Drives) and an LC this weekend (with an ethernet card and 512k VRAM). Found a 1.25 GHz eMac in the dumpster this morning (1.25 GB RAM, 80GB HDD).

[CC_333]

Hi,

How do you find all this stuff?!

I can never seem to find the things you do with such frequency (of course, if I looked harder,and had more money and space, I could probably accomplish a lot...)

In California, unfortunately, it seems that almost everybody's recycling everything electronic older than about 10 years these days. Older stuff (especially 68k and pre-G3 Mac stuff) is becoming increasingly hard to find.

c

[mcdermd]

It is that way here too. I check craigslist about every day, looking for stuff in about a 75 mile radius. I also check the electronics dumpster at the recycling station here. There are a lot of people who throw this stuff away because they believe it to be worthless.

In short, it's an active hobby.

[Cosmo]

Finding stuff is indeed a active hobby, finding new ways to contact people, find places hear stories, being an Sherlock Holmes at times. That's how it goes. Sometimes it's really hard finding nothing worth a while, sometimes you make the score justifying all the work put on the hobby. Don't take too much pressure

It's easily notiseable. Pre G3 machines are more difficult to find. Those that are cheap/free, are usually in bad shape and the better ones the owners think they are treasure and ask money for them (sometimes less, sometimes more). I've seen insane asking prices for basic PPC stuff from the 90's lately wich is just plain silly. If something goes up in value over time, it would be 68k machines and before, times of Apple II and, of cos certain triumph-of-the-design items like Cube, iMac G4 and of cos, raretie, TAM.

Oh, i'll keep my eye on the CD bezel. I have a friend who have lots of project shaped iBook G3's around. What were the colors you were looking for? PM me with details ok?

[mcdermd]

Excellent! I need two Indigo colored ones if you come across them. I think I've decided that it's my Favorite iBook color. The milky white with the blue looks really great.

[mcdermd]

Another day, another ... eMac?

Strange but another eMac (1GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD) was in the trash today.

[mcdermd]

I traded capacitor replacement on an iMac G5 power supply for an 8500/120 with a Newertech MaxPower 250 MHz G3 processor upgrade (but shows up as 279 MHz in ASP?), 192 MB RAM and 2 GB SCSI drive.

[Byrd]

mcdermd, I think you win the prize for the most active 68K Mac liberator on the forums!

Newertech G3 cards can be easily overclocked (see DIP switch settings for the card), so yours has a mild overclock which should be OK.

[mcdermd]

Well, not all of it is 68k ...

After installing the MaxPowr extension, ASP is showing the rated 250 MHz now.

[mcdermd]

Well worn but intact, this box arrived today:

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Why would you want a box?

It's fast approaching peak craigslist season here in the triangle, lots of "wealthy" college/uni kids heading off into the world and selling off all kinds of cool stuff . . .
. . . gotta stay off craigslist this year though, can't afford the disappointment over sticking to the toy budget.

[mcdermd]

... but what was inside the beater box matches it's cousins so well.

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

[mcdermd]

I picked up an original, 700 MHz, 15" iMac G4 yesterday for $25, sans hard drive. I dug out a one of the slim, 5200 RPM 40 GB Apple-branded drives and slotted it back in with an Airport card. It looks pretty good setup with the white Pro speakers, keyboard and mouse.

[Mk.558]

How well does that Portable churn? Is it the backlit one or the non-backlit?

Soo retro...say some chaps are arguing about the merits of laptops idly, and you pull up with that thing on. "This may not have a Core i7 or 8GB of RAM, but it has a trackball, a bulky lead-acid battery, no backlight for the LCD and is four times heavier than a modern laptop."

[mcdermd]

Non-backlit and it works fine. It's been recapped and has a rebuilt battery (I have a dead original battery too). I haven't tested it personally but they're supposed to be able to run ten hours on a charge. Even though the screen isn't backlit, it's really sharp. Nice to look at.

I actually lugged it a few blocks in downtown Portland, OR a couple of months ago. I got a couple of funny looks.